Pretty cool. There are several tracks I can't get out of my head. It's been days and days and days in the player...

Accelerate - REM

Schema - a collaboration between the late Mary Hansen (Stereolab) and several members of the now defunct experimental rock band "Hovercraft."
Its an old one, but I just found out about it and HAD to have it.

What I know about Blues could fit in a thimble, and I thought it was/is a glaring gap in my collection. Though I dislike 'best ofs', I picked up a few to try and sample some of it.

====>>> This stuff is just fantastic.

If anyone has 1 or 2 recomendations - please suggest something. (sko - please... not 50 names thrown out..., thats not always terribly helpful.. ) I need more of this musical nourishment.

BB King - Ultimate Collection


Muddy Waters - Definitive Collection


John Lee Hooker - Very Best of...


Sonny Boy Williamson - His Best


also picked up this, that in comparison to the above... doesnt have much merit IMHO....

CAT POWER (CHAN MARSHALL) - JUKEBOX

good choice.

the everybodyfields- nothing is okay

i saw this band sunday night opening for tift merritt, they were great.
i bought this after their set, and its really good. it was a paste magazine top 50 album last year.
they are considered the leading edge of the new so-called alt-country/americana movement.
with a wonderful mix of traditional country with folk, bluegrass, and rock thrown in for good measure,
they are really hard to pin down what they are categorized as. it sounds familiar, but then again not.
from johnson city, tn, fronted by sam quinn- he of these huge muttonchop sideburns and a
gorgeous jill andrews, with a beautiful voice to match, they share lead vocals and
their voices harmonize so well together. check em out.

they are playing the dame in lexington on wednesday 4-9.

I Just got a couple of autographed Jim Morris CDs... I never heard of this guy....

he *is* Jimmy Buffet redux. Some of it is such a ripoff its funny... but this guy has talent too.

http://www.jim-morris.com/music.htm

He's got about 15 CDs. I got 'Seafood Platter' (which is great fun) and his new one 'One Man Party' which is good too.

http://www.jim-morris.com/platter.htm
http://www.jim-morris.com/party.htm

very fun. Recommended.

SHERYL CROW - DETOURS

Vagabonds - Gary Louris ... my daughter gave me this for my birthday, today. wow! guess i ought to go back and take a look at the jayhawks.

absolutely. start w/"rainy day music" and you'll be hooked.

I vote for Tomorrow The Green Grass as a Jayhawks starting point simply because it's the best album by the original band w/both Mark and Gary. The post-Mark stuff is great (well, Smile and Rainy Day Music were) but I like that the band started out with two distinct songwriting personalities, as well as those amazing vocal harmonies. Really, you can't go wrong with either record, though. Amazing stuff.

That's why we are all different...personally, I really dig Tomorrow The Green Grass.

I iTunesed the new Raconteurs, and She & Him's Volume I. I sooo wanted to love She & Him. But I don't.

She and Him isn't doing much for me either.
Its been getting a lot of buzz.
For those that don't know, its actress Zooey Deschanel, with lots of help from M. Ward.

For me, they just nailed it on Hollywood Town Hall. Strong songwriting, great vocals. The only other album like that from that time period that I remember hitting me the very first time was Son Volt's "Trace". Powerful stuff man.

I like Tomorrow The Green Grass, as well as their EP/first album Blue Earth(check out the song "5 cups of coffee"). I've grown to like Smile and Rainy Day Music, but I miss the harmonies.

I'd check out some other albums with Louis or Olsen, including the first Golden Smog album and Mark's latest.

i like "tomorrow the green grass." a lot. but, i love "rainy day music." it's up there, almost in the same ballpark as "GDBD" & "trinity" for me, and that's some high praise.

mark's latest, "salvation blues" is pretty damn good, took a few listens to grow on me, i think gary is by far, the stronger of the two as a writer. but man, those harmonies were amazing...

i saw them together @ the bowery ballroom 2-3 years ago, a-damn-mazing show.

Contact by Sound Sanctuary

I'm telling you guys, if you dig harmonies, you gotta give these guys a listen.

I finally got around to listening to Bettye LaVette's latest release (2007) "The Scene of the Crime" and I am blown away by the amount of heartache and power this lady even in her later years is still able to get across and how goood her voice still sounds to my ears. It borders on that fine line of melancholy without being depressing.. its a true honest Blues Album. Well worth the purchase IMO.

Bettye's great on stage, too. She played ahead of Al Green at Tall Stacks a few years ago & knocked us out

I've heard her live albums, and saw her on "Blues Divas" but this latest album makes me want to see her Live in person, so thanks for confirming its worth it!! I also just found today (for digital download only though) her "Unreleased" album "Child of the Seventies" and I LOVE IT... she could have been on the big divas of the time (i.e. Diana Ross or Aretha) if this had actually been released... WOWZA is all I have to say...

Birthday music courtesy of the Best Buy card from my father:

Fervor/Lost & Found - Jason and the Scorchers ... i've loved these guys, ever since seeing their video for Dylan's Absolutely Sweet Marie on mtv, back in 1983. thrilled to finally have Lost & Found on cd (still have my vinyl ep of Fervor )

Awkward Annie - Kate Rusby ... clearly, the greatest British singer since Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson.

Matthew Ryan Vs. The Silver State - Matthew Ryan ... already heard some of this on his site. might steal some fans away from Ryan Adams. give him a listen.

More coming in the mail, any day now ...

More Best Buy birthday music arrived today:

Hideaway - The Weepies

Listening to it, right now. Really good.

yep, its a good one, full of beautiful harmonies.

they had 2 different songs being played this past christmas time for tv ads.

i have heard a lot about them... i need to remember to give them more of a listen.

i picked this up on the way home from work today


only to find a nice kris related surprise in my mailbox from kent, who introduced me to her music w/a gift of "strange conversation" (which i love) a year or so ago.

thanks bro, i've got a gift i'm bringing to dayton for you too.

hey now.

I have to pick that one up.... after I picked up Strange Conversation I got 'Five Stories' (2001) which is very nice too.

She really is very good.. and this from someone who takes folk in moderation, and country hardly at all. She has a solid place in my sunday-morning-making-pankakes for-the-fam rotation.

you're welcome bill. cool, i like surprises.
'shotgun singer' has a little more harder edge to it than 'strange conversation' does.
she also has a companion 6 song ep called 'horses swimming" which is more along the 'strange conversation' lines musically.
she sells these at her shows and i think her web site has them too.

i was reading an article about them in the final issue of No Depression today and it said that they have had songs placed in 43 film or tv spots, to date. wow!

Outlandos D'Amour - The Police ... i've been looking for this one for a while. got it used for $5.99! now, if i can just find Regatta De Blanc and Synchronicity, i'll have the essentials.

got these at Gem City in Dayton this weekend-

Arrica Rose and the ...'s- La La Lost


Amelia- A Long, Lovely List of Repairs

and these at CST from the incredibly voiced opening act Julie Lee.
She was so well liked that the Friday crowd bought up all the CDs she brought with her.

Julie Lee- Stillhouse Road


Julie Lee- Take Me Out to Hear the Band

and had these waiting for me at home when we got back

Nicole Gordon- Long Time


Ashleigh Flynn- American Dream

i am absolutely loving these!

i'm so glad i picked them up friday night.

An old fave with a batch of new tunes - quality (B3) Winwood
Nine Lives * Steve Winwood

i was a huge stevie/traffic fan and he pretty much lost me after "arc of a diver" (god, that was forever ago). he had (has?) one of the best voices ever, was a great keyboardist and hugely underrated on the guitar.

so the new stuff is good?

Except my copy reads Halfway to Fivepoints with a bonus track... hmmm

I like it a lot. Much less, if any, synth...and a lot of B3, a little flute, perc, bass & guitar (on 1 track, Dirty City, it's Clapton)
He's doing a show w/ Tom Petty at Riverbend in July that should be a real nice one this summer. He did a project a few years ago, too, that I liked a lot called About Time. Some nice things there, too.

Yikes... you *have* to have synchronicity. Thats a fantastic album/disc. Come to think of it, I havent played it in years..... think I'l put that puppy in for a spin....

i've had these for a few months, and im really enjoying them:

ultra-lounge: vol 13 T.V. town (old tv themes: batman, the mod squad etc
gorecki: string quartet #3 (kronos quartet)

Album of the Year contender here:

Finally had a chance to listen to this today -- wow! Guess I'm gonna have to buy her other one.

You mean Sting's first solo album?

I love the Police but I rarely listen to anything besides the first three albums. After Sting started bombarding everything with keyboards they kind of lost me. Regatta De Blanc is awesome though...definitely my favorite after the debut.

true enough indeed.

April - Sun Kil Moon ... my first foray into Sun Kil Moon. wow! i didn't know rock (?) music could sound so gorgeous.

Sun Kil Moon is the brainchild of Mark Kozelek. There are 2 previous Sun Kil Moon albums, the one before April is Tiny Cities, which is all
Modest Mouse covers, and is a gem. He also has a couple of solo albums out, including last years Little Drummer Boy- Live, which is a 2CDer,
which includes work from Sun Kil Moon, solo stuff, and the awesome band Red House Painters. If you like SKM at all, you need to backtrack into the Red House Painters sometime. An incredible band for sure, one of my personal all-time favorites. I get to see Mark up here on 6/6 in Minneapolis.

I strongly suggest Songs for a Blue Guitar by the Red House Painters. He does an 11 minute version of Paul McCartney's Silly Love Songs, but if you didn't know it was there, you may not recognize it at all. Make Like Paper is a favorite of mine on this CD, but it's all good IMO.



Have You Forgotten 6:13
Song For A Blue Guitar 5:59
Make Like Paper 12:03
Priest Alley Song 4:34
Trailways 6:41
I Feel The Rain Fall 2:35
Long Distance Runaround 4:41
All Mixed Up 5:50
Revelation Big Sur 5:48
Silly Love Songs 11:11
Another Song For A Blue Guitar 5:07

I just bought the new SKM also, but haven't found time to take the wrapper off of it yet. Kozolek is an interesting guy. Sun Kil Moon was the name of a boxer or something like that...

I definitely suggest first timers to listen to some sound bytes before jumping...he can be an acquired taste...

Amazon.com
At first glance, Songs for a Blue Guitar appears much like previous Red House Painters albums, meandering and largely self-indulgent. Eight of the album's 11 songs stray over the five-minute mark (with two more than twice that length), and there are the covers of Yes's "Long Distance Runaround," Ric Ocasek's "All Mixed Up," and Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs." Kozelek may have strange taste when it comes to picking out covers ("Silly Love Songs"?), but on this album he's also showing a commitment and sense of deliberate purpose that I've not heard from him before. Even in the album's centerpiece, the more than 12-minute long "Make Like Paper" that contains a guitar solo that supposedly is responsible for 4AD dropping them, there's not a false move. The song unfolds gently, revealing more facets of itself than the spare instrumentation would seem to allow. The guitar's absolutely delicious Neil Young/Robert Quine/Richard Lloyd crunch doesn't hurt, either. That crunch shows up again in "Long Distance Runaround" and "Silly Love Songs," but the rest of the album is built around a gently arresting acoustic guitar that mirrors the soft-voiced Kozelek. --Randy Silver

holy! this is great, almost like traffic reborn.

after the first pass, i'd say it's prob the best thing i've bought so far this year.

thanks much for bringing this up brian, stevie's pretty much been off my radar since "arc of a diver" (which is older than most people that post on this board) and i would've completely missed it. and i'm glad i didn't!

There you go.....
Glad you like it, Bill

I'd heard about the "Long Distance Runaround" cover, but not the McCartney or Cars. Verrry interesting. I really like April! I just got it, yesterday, and I've probably listened to it three or four times, by now (and it's about 80 minutes, long).

This is one very sweet record! Unfortunately it's only available as an import, at least for now.